Spring Events For The Madman

Spring is almost here. Later today Ēostre arrives with her signs of spring – the earth can truly wake up. It’s been a wet spring so far. We have already had 5” of rain this March.

I know the madman always says “water, water, water,” but enough is enough. The ground needs to dry out before we can consider working the soil. There isn’t a gardener alive who is not itching to get out as soon as the snow clears.

Don’t Rush

But, going out too early can cause more harm than good to your soil. If you take a handful of soil and squeeze it, it should fall apart when you open your hand. If it forms a nice ball, hold off. Working the soil at this stage compresses the soil particles together forming hard clumps that will be difficult to break up later. This compacted soil will have less room for water and air and your plants’ roots will have trouble growing in this soil. Best to wait – no St. Patrick’s Day peas for the madman this year and that’s a favorite of his spring events.

Not much to do outside. But we are down to 8 weeks before the last frost date. Break out the seeds. There are several varieties that can be started indoors in the next week or so. Remember, the madman uses May 15 as his last frost date. Other people use the last full moon of May as their safe planting time – this year it is May 23. Some people will wait until Memorial Day. But the madman says there’s no excitement in planting on Memorial Day – he prefers a little risk. I do have to remind him that last year we had a frost on May 16. Plenty of our readers are also reminding him of that. Remember, the date you use is not set in stone – keep a good eye on the weather forecast; temperatures may drop.

Have A Plan

Before you look at your garden seeds, check your garden plan. Don’t have one? Guess you’d better come up with one – without a plan you could be in trouble. Were there crops you wanted to rotate? Were there varieties you wanted to add? What about the varieties you said you would never plant again. And don’t forget numbers – did you need two dozen zucchinis?

Have your trees grown enough to make shade a problem? After several years of drought, many varieties hit a growth spurt with the rain we have had for the past year. Even the madman is facing additional shade in the garden. Some trees will have to go. But until they are gone, he is considering alternate use of a couple of areas. A garden bed we once used for herbs is now shady during the afternoon – not a good thing for sun loving herbs. Since it will have sun in the morning and evening, the madman wants to try salad greens that should like the cool of some shade in mid-day.

Stay Local

If you aren’t planning to start your own seeds, you can just fine tune your garden plan. Figure out how many of each variety you will need. And, when it comes time to get them, the madman suggests you stick to local growers – they know the growing conditions and plant varieties that perform best in your area. But, if you are growing your own transplants, now is a good time to separate seed packets into “start indoors” and “direct sow outdoors.” Follow the directions and timetables suggested on the seed packets. Indoors, the madman is starting tomatoes, eggplants and sweet peppers over the next week or so – remember his hot peppers were started weeks ago.

Time To Look Up

Speaking of spring events, as excited as he is about the upcoming garden season, the madman is almost more excited about the upcoming astronomical events. In case you haven’t heard, we will be treated with a couple of eclipses in the next few weeks. The first is a penumbral eclipse of the moon on March 25. Beginning at 12:53 a.m., the moon will pass through the light outermost edge of the earth’s shadow.

Penumbral eclipses aren’t usually very spectacular and are sometimes hard to see. But, whether it’s spectacular or not, it doesn’t happen every day so the madman will be out there looking for it. The madman says if you miss this one, don’t worry, there will be a better one on the night of September 17-18. This will be a partial eclipse and part of the moon will pass through the earth’s dark shadow. Note that lunar eclipses occur during a full moon when the earth is exactly between the moon and the sun.

Main Event Of The Year

The penumbral eclipse just leads up to the main feature of the spring events, the Great American Eclipse of 2024 as some have dubbed it. Since this event happens on April 8, you have time to prepare. Here in Farmington, we expect to see a deep partial eclipse – magnituide 92.9%, almost but not quite total. If you want to experience totality, you have to travel. NASA has prepared a nice map tracing the path of totality; here’s the link.

Regardless of where you view the eclipse, you need to use extreme caution. Do not look directly at the sun. In his previous life as an optometrist, the madman has seen firsthand the damage that staring at the sun can cause. Be aware that this damage is not reversible and is plain out not worth the risk.

Stay Safe

But no one wants to miss the highlight of the spring events. You have plenty of time to prepare for safe viewing. Don’t rely on your sunglasses for protection. You can purchase solar eclipse glasses or viewers from a variety of sources. The madman says that the safest way to view the eclipse is with a pinhole viewing system, especially if you have young children. The Planetary Society has a nice article on creating such a viewing system – you’ll find it here.

Solar eclipse glasses will protect your eyes from direct viewing, but don’t use them to look at the sun through binoculars. In fact, if you plan to point any optical device at the sun, make sure it has the correct solar filters – nothing homemade.

Over the next few weeks, the madman will be planting seeds, tending transplants, digging soil and making his pinhole viewing system for the eclipse. He’ll be plenty busy.

But for now, I’ll make him a nice cup of hot cocoa.